Cisco Said to Resell EMC NAS

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) and EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) have solidified a new deal whereby Cisco will resell EMC's NAS products, according to several industry sources.

Cisco's been looking for a NAS partner, analysts say, and speculation that it's EMC has been rampant in recent weeks. Analyst Thomas Curlin of RBC Capital Markets maintained in a note before Christmas that the pairing was almost certain to occur, despite speculation that Network Appliance Inc. (Nasdaq: NTAP) or even a startup could be in the running (see Cisco NAS Options Mulled).

Now sources say the deal is so far along that EMC salespeople have been briefed on the fine points, and an official announcement is set for sometime soon, possibly even next week.

Specifics of the deal are sketchy, but it builds on the two-year-old agreement by EMC to resell Cisco's MDS 9000 (see EMC, Cisco Do the Deed). One source, who asked not to be named, says EMC will provide a blade based on its Celerra NAS for use in the MDS chassis. Additionally, EMC will resell Cisco's MDS 9216i multiprotocol switch. Also, the buzz is that Cisco, via the MDS and Advanced Services Module, will be the first switch partner for EMC's Storage Router.

It's apparently still not clear whether EMC will resell software from Cisco, such as the wide-area file services solution Cisco acquired with Actona (see Cisco Wades Into WAFS). Still, EMC doesn't have its own WAFS product.EMC declined to comment on any of this, and Cisco did not return calls for comment at press time. But if true, the next few days should offer some interesting shifts in the storage networking market, as the players, their customers, and competitors digest the implications of the reported alliance.

Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch